There are few clearer signs that spring has sprung than the appearance of all those bundles of asparagus spears in the greengrocers. This member of the lilly family...

In this day and age, we're not used to our food fighting back. In fact, the only non-nettle related incident I can recall where I came off worse than my prospective...

The matcha magic starts early in April when the first new shoots appear on the undulating rows of tea bushes that hug the contours of the land beneath them. Tea is...

When the epicentre of international gastronomy hifted north, introducing the world to new Nordic cuisine, the assembled technocrats of Molecular Gastronomy from...

Some vegetables have all the luck – glamour, fame, flawless complexions and seemingly endless TV appearances with Nigella. Then there is the poor swede. Warty and...

Say ‘Westonbirt’ to just about anyone in the west of England and you’re rewarded with two things; one, a dreamy sigh and two, a promise to pay the place...

In Park Wood on the Gower Peninsula in south Wales there is a valley. About 50ft from the valley floor near the top of the gorge, is the tall narrow opening to...

In the third interview in the series A Lifetime in Food, Richard Aslan talks to Peter Knipp, a Berlin-born chef and entrepreneur based in Singapore. If I have...

Make no bones about it, this is an amazing book. Clarissa Dickson Wright, of Two Fat Ladies fame, covers the history of food in England from the 12th to the 21st...

L'Entrepôt occupies a long, skinny warehouse in deepest Dalston under the arches of Hackney Downs station and slap bang next to a Tesco Metro. “When we got the...

It's the season of goodwill and you don't me to point out that stuffing is all around us. Since at least 1538 when the term first appeared in print, Christmas just...

Like saffron and pomegranates, there is something exotic about walnuts – and there can be few places in the world more exotic than the fantastically named...

OK, I'll be honest. When I was a kid, Christmas wasn't great. When a family is doing its best not to fly apart at the seams, taking the dogs for a rain-sodden drag...

Remember, remember, the 5th of November. Gunpowder, treason and parkin. OK, I know it's not quite how the rhyme goes, but if you are from the north, parkin and...

It’s long eared, twitchy nosed, high protein, low fat, cheap as chips and free range. Its carbon footprint is minuscule and wild rabbit is just about as...

I spend the day with Nina who is from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital and lives in Bristol. Tbilisi is twinned with Bristol – a connection that Nina takes...

Beer has accompanied us on our journey throughout the ages ever since the first sip was taken in some Neolithic settlement, a newly domesticated wheat crop swishing...

The Belarus Free Theatre are bringing Minsk 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker to this year’s Mayfest, a love letter to Belarus that they describe as ‘a land that...

Berlin! It was love at first sight, but though there is a Bio – or organic – supermarket on virtually every corner, the city is hardly known as a great slow...

Borough Market on a Saturday lunchtime is not for the faint hearted and when we arrive at Elliot's Cafe, there is a queue out of the door. A brass band plays across...

When Najiba Mrakadeh talks, she effortlessly conjures up colours, smells, and sounds, and she talks with her hands and the expressions on her face as she does with...

My favourite place in Cardiff, the Central Market, sits between the twin behemoths of the Millennium Stadium and St David's Shopping Centre, resolutely ignoring the...

"We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink, for dining alone is leading the life of a lion or wolf." Epicurus...

15 nights, 80 miles on foot, 8 ferries, 7 trains, 6 buses, 4 lifts from strangers, 3 taxis and 10 different places to sleep. Richard Aslan discovers the Northern...

I ring on the intercom and Rosa comes down to meet me. “Hi!” she says, greeting me with a warm handshake. She is Korean born but left 10 years ago aged 17 and...

I don’t notice the jam jar on the table at first, such is the hustle and bustle of our monthly bring-a-dish, welcome-one-and-all supper. Imagine my delight when I...

Barbro Magnusson meets us at Stroud station, her welcome as warm as the unseasonable sunshine. She wears a floor length red velvet coat and has us laughing out loud...

Nervously waiting for the pig to arrive on the inaugural Peach Pubs 'Pork to Fork' hands-on butchery day, somewhat hysterically, I imagine it trotting in on lead...

Can it get better than this creamy dream, spiced with the frisson of orthographic rebellion each time I write it? Choosing 'yoghourt' over other Bill Gates approved...

FRIDAY 18:23: We take the train from Bristol to Bath in our finest togs and most un-scuffed shoes. A taxi sweeps us into the estate along its mile-and-a-half...

My mobile rings and I hear Donna’s familiar tones for the first time in over a year, “Hi honey! I’m at a very pretty train station!” She gets a very big hug...

The Potted Pig occupies a cavernous basement a stone's throw from Cardiff Castle. We are greeted at the door by a smiling gentleman in a pale grey suit with a...

When it comes to vegetables, I urge you to choose ugly. I like ugly. It's good ugly in the way of boxer dogs or the Brutalist architecture of my local swimming...

Maybe you’ve heard of Mauritius from someone who spent their honeymoon there or from vague memories of the dodo at school. You might even be able to find the...

The Great Food Revival. We hear about it all the time with the next up-and-coming chef reinvigorating another traditional skill. I’ve become more and more curious...

Paul Kingsnorth wrote Real England: The Battle Against the Bland in 2009 examining the changing face of England in the context of growing globalisation. He was also...

So, food and books – two of life’s greatest simple pleasures. What else is there? Ha! Yes, quite… drinking can be quite good fun too! Sometimes growing...

“Well, yesterday was very nice, but today is damp again,” Ronnie sighs in an accent owing as much to Scandinavia as Scotland. “The wind is supposed to go...

There comes a time when you have to give up on something. Walk away from it. Give up the ghost, leave it for dead, shrug your shoulders and just let it run its...

Wikipedia is now firmly entrenched as part of our virtual world. It's the first port of call for information. Back in the early days, there was something almost...

I am not British. I don't have any special claim on this place. I haven't been here for that long, and the truth of the matter is, I can't always trust that my...

Today, I want to tell you about two triangles. They are, in my opinion, two tools that will most definitely make the freelancer's life a bit easier, and even help...

A couple of things happened recently that made me think. The first was when I was waiting in a queue in Wilkos. I was buying a padded envelope while the woman...